47 pounds

This is our dog food storage bin.

This is the 47 pound bag of dog food.

Yum!

So, when you're almost nine months pregnant and you aren't supposed to lift anything heavy and your husband isn't home and you're too impatient to wait for him - how do you get the 47 pounds of dog food into the storage bin?

 

One cup at a time, my friends.  One cup at a time.

 

By the way, 47 pounds is less weight than what I gained during my pregnancy.  *sigh*

 

 

Some assembly required

I bought this Fisher Price Zen Swing in April and it was unbelievably easy to put together.  I love the colors and that it doesn't look too baby-ish; it looks like it can just fit right in with the decor of a home.  The seat turns so baby can swing side to side or front to back and the seat detaches completely and can be taken to any room where you might be.  The music is decent and it plays nature sounds, too.  However, the one downside I've noticed is that the swing motor is a little louder than I expected and the mobile doesn't turn on its own.  Boo.

This is the Safety 1st playard/bassinet/changing table I bought for our bedroom - I absolutely love this thing but it was a COMPLETE ROYAL PAIN IN THE PATOOTIE TO ASSEMBLE! It took Jakob and I almost two hours to assemble and it was definitely a two person job. First, there were no instructions whatsoever.  ????  (I will add this note, a month after assembling this I found the instructions completely hidden in a pocket on the backside of the mattress.  I discovered the pocket by complete accident.)  And getting some of the pieces to fit together was like getting a 500 pound person to lift their leg behind their head; it just wasn't happening.  Then, we couldn't get two of the sides to lock into position.  Did I mention I was over 8 months pregnant when we were doing this? I was huffing and puffing and sweating and if I hadn't been cussing so much, Jakob probably would have thought I was going to pass out from all of the stress this little contraption was causing me.  As you can see we did finally get it put together and he went off to take a shower and escape the verbal garbage that was still free flowing from my frustrated mouth. I wheeled it over to our bedroom door and guess what?  IT WAS HALF AN INCH TOO WIDE TO FIT THROUGH!  My head spun around about 4 times and I'm sure I looked possessed as I spent the next 10 minutes cursing and yelling and slamming this thing on the ground until finally one of the sides gave way and I was able to get it through the door.  The next day Jakob asked me what all of the noise was about the night before and I had to explain my meltdown.  Shame on me, I know.  I told D after he got home from work that this contraption was never leaving our room.  EVER.  NEVER EVER.  NOT IN A MILLION YEARS.  I couldn't believe how stiff the locks were once you got them into place.  I so wanted to use this when we travel, but unless the Good Lord provides a divine intervention and fixes those locks, I don't see it happening.  However, it works awesomely in our room!  The storage on the side and the changing table are so convenient!  Side note: the music it plays sucks.

Goodbye, Jakob

Today is a bittersweet day.

Jakob and his family are leaving.

It's a day we thought we were prepared for, but saying goodbye is always hard to do. On one hand we're excited and looking forward to the new chapter of life we're about to embark on and on the other hand we're going to miss having Jakob around. He's essentially been our son for the last 8 1/2 months and we've enjoyed having him here. There was an adjustment period for him and for us, but we definitely had a good experience as host parents. He's a good kid and I hope that his year in the United States was all that he hoped it would be. And hopefully he doesn't take home any of my cuss words.

His parents and sister arrived last week and it's easy to see where Jakob's good manners and spirit come from. They are an amazing family and it's obvious how close-knit they are and how much they love each other. I can't imagine sending my child halfway around the world to live abroad for a year. I know it must have been very difficult for all of them and his sister said that Berlin without Jakob wasn't any fun. She also said that if he comes back to the United States for college, she's coming with him. :)

We will miss you Jakob!

Bullies

I get daily emails from The Pioneer Woman blog and on Saturday, the blog was a question about bullies, posted for PW by Heather Sanders.  Here's the blog post:


Need Advice. My Son is Dealing with Bullies.
Posted: 27 Apr 2013 03:00 AM PDT


Community Question is a category inspired by you. Here and there readers write in with questions that are better served by the varied, experiential knowledge of those who read and contribute in the comments. Please respond to this post in the comments, but if you have a question for the community email it to Heather.

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The following question is from Jenny M.

“I homeschooled my now 17 year old son until he was a Sophomore in high school. At that time, my three kids were put in public school. This year, my youngest went to Kindergarten in public school. Because of poor choices, one of our daughters has been brought back home to homeschool. I loved homeschooling and greatly missed it.

Our six-year-old has been through a lot this past month. First, his teacher, who he loved, quit her job to stay home with a newly adopted daughter. He’s had a hard time with this – not so much in what he says, but he’s just down about it. Last week, when I picked him up from school, I could tell something was wrong. After talking to him for a bit, he told me that a boy in his class pushed him and held him against a wall at recess. This continued, I guess, for most of recess. I told him that he needed to tell the boy to stop in a loud voice. If that didn’t work, then he needed to tell a teacher. I wrote the teacher that evening, and she wrote back and said she had addressed the problem.

The next day, the same boy pushed my son again. He told a teacher, and the boy had his recess taken away. Today I picked my son up and found out that while waiting to be picked up, a different boy came up to my son and punched him in the chest!!!! I told him that he needed to LOUDLY tell these boys to leave him alone.

I’m not sure what to do from here. The irritating thing is seeing how a young child’s innocence can be taken away by these things. Maybe these three incidents won’t do anything, but if this continues, it can have a big impact on his life. Now more than ever I want to bring him home and school him as I felt I should do in the beginning.”

Jenny wants me to ask “What are the community’s thoughts on this?” and say that “Any advice is very welcome.”

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Like Jenny M., I am concerned about how to handle bullying.  Even though my child isn't born yet, this subject is of great concern to me.  I can't stand bullies.  I hate bullies.  I loathe bullies.  Part of me just wants to spank their butts and give them a little dose of their own medicine and then give their parents a piece of my mind.  But, I'm more interested in why a person (child or adult) bullies; getting to the root of the fruit, so to speak, and dealing with the problem from its origination.  For today, my question is what would you do?  How do you deal with bullies if your child is the victim?  What if your child is a witness only?  What if your child is the bully?  What if you've addressed it and the situation hasn't improved?  What if the teacher/school won't listen or refuses to intercede?  What if their intercession has made the situation worse or is ineffective?  What if the bully isn't disciplined at school, even when his/her behavior violates school policy?  What if your child was disciplined for defening him/herself but the bully wasn't disciplined at all?  What if you've talked to the other child's parents and they blew you off, refused to listen or believe what you said?  What if the parents saw nothing wrong with their child's behavior?  At what point did you or would you step in?  At the first sign of bullying, when your child follows your advice and the bullying continues or gets worse, or when you first notice a change in your child's behavior as a reaction to bullying?  What methods have you used that didn't work?

All input is appreciated.

Snips & snails & puppy dog tails

There are some things in life that I have a severe dislike of and try to avoid at all costs. Things like snakes. Or sharks. Or hoards of spiders or other insects. Dealing with a couple of spiders is okay, but when a swarm of them comes out of an old piece of wood or a hole in the ground, I tend to get the shakes and almost puke and have a minor freak out. Also, the type of shoe I have one will play a large role in how I respond.  Flip flops = run away screaming. Boots or tennis shoes (aka sneakers) = stomp it to death. I know most boys like to dig in the dirt and shoot their BB guns and chase critters and pretend to be Daniel Boone or Davy Crocket, and knowing how my husband is, I'm sure our little man will be just like him and love snakes and terrorize me or scare the poo out of me on a regular basis as he grows.

I do not like snakes.

I do not like snakes.

I do not like snakes.

If I see a snake I will almost puke, a response I've had to them my entire life. I cannot explain it, I just don't like snakes. Poisonous, not poisonous - doesn't matter. I don't like snakes. Even if I see one on TV, I will start to gag. D likes to grab them and bring them in the house. What is wrong with this man? I don't understand. Leave them outside and preferably somewhere far away from the house. D has had hours of enjoyment from my phobia over the years. So, yesterday he sent me this:

     I was just sitting here thinking, what are you going to do when someday our little boy comes
     running in the house and says, "Mommy! Mommy! Look what I found!" And you turn around
     to see your little boy holding a snake in the house. You can't scream, he might drop it and it
     could go under the furniture. How funny will that be!!!! =D

He knows me too well.  And, oddly enough, I had had that same thought the day before. Snakes, frogs and other gross things in the house - I don't think I'm prepared. I'm not afraid of frogs, I just don't care to hold them. They're slimy and they pee on you. Or lizards. I had a pet iguana once, that didn't go so well, either. I would pick him up and handle him and pet him and whatnot, but he got loose in the house once and, needless to say, I stayed on the couch, like on the highest part of the back of the couch, while someone else hunted the thing down. He just darted everywhere and that gave me the willies. He ended up finding a new home with a Marine who let him ride around on his shoulder. I'm sure he was a much happier iguana with the Marine than he was with me. I like soft animals, like snuggly dogs and cats or horses or bunnies. I even like cute little goats (so adorable when the babies jump around) frolicky calves and fuzzy wittle sheep. Or lions and tigers and bears, oh my! They're adorable, not that I need to pet one, I just like looking at them and imagining that they can talk. I have issues. Yes, I grew up in the country, on a ranch, working horses and cattle and hauling hay and there have only been a few things in life that truly scare me or give me the willies. But reptiles ..... not my cup 'o tea. I can deal with dirt, mud, snot, poop, puke, fits, screaming, bumps, bites, bruises, fights, nightmares, blood, guts, sweat and tears, but if this boy brings a snake in the house, I may have a heart attack.  :)

DIY cleaner recipes

Here are a few DIY cleaning agents that I've seen on Facebook.  I did not save the info of who originally posted them and I have no idea who took the photos or who came up with the recipe.  I'm not trying to steal anyone's idea or photo, just sharing the recipes I saw that I really, really liked and that I think are very helpful!  Here's to cleaning and saving money while doing it!  :)


HOMEMADE FEBREZE

Ingredients:
1/8 Cup of fabric softener
2 Tbsp baking soda
Hot tap water
Spray bottle (i.e. an empty 27 oz. Febreze bottle)

Directions:
Using a funnel, pour the fabric softener and baking soda into the spray bottle.  Fill the bottle with hot tap water and shake well - making sure to twist the nozzle to the lock position if you're using a Febreze bottle.

Store-bought Febreze: $5.59
Homemade Febreze: $0.15
Total Savings: $5.44 OR 97.3%!



 
MATTRESS CLEANER

Ingredients:
Mason Jar
1 C baking soda
4 drops lavender essential oil

Directions:
Combine the baking soda and lavender oil in the jar.  Cover with the lid and shake well.  Using a mesh strainer, sprinkle the baking soda mixture all over the mattress and let it sit for an hour or more.  Thoroughly vacuum the mattress.

This will eliminate dust mites and other nasty things.  The baking soda helps draw up any moisture and deep dirtiness.  It also deodorizes and leaves the mattress smelling fresh and clean.




GROUT CLEANER

Ingredients:
7 C water
1/2 C baking soda
1/3 C lemon juice
1/4 C vinegar

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle and spray your floor.  Let it sit for a minute or two, then scrub.




A couple of personal notes:  Baking soda will help clean up doggie poo stains - including diarrhea.  After you pick up the "solids", pour the baking soda all over the "wet" area and let it set for several hours.  Using a vacuum that is not your "good" one (i.e. use a shop-vac), vacuum up the baking soda and the poo particles that you couldn't scoop up.  This works very well on the Big D - trust me, I had to do it twice thanks to Diamond having an upset tummy a few years ago.  There will be some stains left over, grab some Windex - just the regular blue stuff - and spray the stains.  I used an old toothrbrush to gently scrub in all directions, then paper towels to pat it dry and all of the stains came up completely.  You may have to repeat the Windex step a couple of times to get all of it up, depending on how bad your stain is.  If you're afraid that the Windex will discolor your carpet, test it in a discreet area first.  I use Windex to get out all kinds of stains in the carpet.  I told my mother-in-law about it and she used it on her carpet and made it look brand new.  She thought she was going to have to replace the carpet until she cleaned it with Windex.  Aaaaaaand, the generic stuff works just as well as the name brand.  :)

Shampooing the carpet

Being a dog owner and living in a pasture means that there's a lot of vacuuming done at our house. But, even with all of the vacuuming I still need to shampoo the carpet every few months. We invested in a good shampooer a few years ago that is for carpets, hard floors and furniture - something I recommend if you're going to shampoo your carpet or clean your furniture every few months, it's much more cost effective. I know I'm a clean freak, but let's face it, even without the dogs, is shampooing your carpet once a year (or less) really often enough? I think not. I want to get the carpets clean before Jakob's family arrives next week and I may do it again before the baby comes. Yes, clean freak, I know. Today was the day to clean!

Things were great until I ran out of carpet shampoo thirty minutes into my carpet shampooing endeavor. That'll piss you off. I guess next time I'll check my stores of shampoo before I begin. However, the light at the end of this tunnel came when I remembered someone telling me that vinegar or Windex could be substituted - both of which I have plenty of. I'm not into smelling vinegar (peeeee-youuuuuu) unless I'm cleaning my drains at the beginning of the month, so I went with Windex. Good old, plain, blue Windex. I actually used the Walmart generic brand, but it's the same stuff. It worked awesomely! Just as well, if not better, than the high dollar carpet shampoo I've been buying! I didn't even use it full strength, I diluted it just like I would if I'd used the 2X concentrated shampoo. And no, my house does not smell like chemicals. Honestly, I don't smell the Windex at all. And it didn't discolor the carpet, either. I was told once that the commercial shampoos will leave a residue on your carpet that over time will actually attract dirt (I have no idea if that's true or not), but that vinegar or Windex won't do that. Time will tell.

So, today's tidbit of homespun wisdom is that you can save yourself a lot of money by subbing generic Windex ($1-$2 per bottle) over the high priced carpet shampoo ($10-$15 or more depending on what you buy). Happy shampooing, peeps!